September 2009 Blog Posts (21)

SORRY FIRST: Last week, in captioning a photo of a boat being hauled of a shoal, I mistakenly reported the boat as Star Fish. My naming was based on some info I got handed me, since I couldn’t see the transom of the boat when I took the photo at the Rip. The boat being pulled off the sands was actually the Sea Horse, out of Tuckerton.
Apologies to boat owner Carl Sheppard for any ribbing he and the various Star Fish captains… Continue

Bassing is good to very good on many LBI beaches. Fish to over 20 pounds have jumped on bait or plugs. Jigs are working also. Right about now, odds are pretty good you’ll attract a striper if you put enough early morning effort in. While Gibb’s and other big name poppers are working well, it often comes down to simply getting a longer cast out there, especially when the surf is sudsing up the place. Bets popperists I know do a much slower retrieve then the… Continue

There are stripers in the surf. Cobalt blue Gibb’s Polaris are taking. I had a bass roll three distinct times on my large Zara Spook (one that fooled a nice weakie). It was either half blind or simply toying with the snaky swimming plug. Mark J. had a goodly showing of small bass while poppering in rough water, South End.

Here’s an oddish bluefish tale. A fellow I met in Holgate years back dropped by to show me an… Continue

Saturday, September 26, 2009: Weaves: Large after-swell from yesterday gusts.

Note: The LBI Fishing club World Series is using moist of the beach from Harvey Cedars to Ship Bottom this a.m.

It got pretty cranky out there yesterday, knocking fishing pressure down to near nothing – though those daring storm casters, who wait for just such NE conditions, were out there finding bass. I have two emails for bass to 34 inches and the proverbial near-misses of “big” fish. Part of… Continue

Imagine a mullet migration where the honored species stays home – or stays wherever? In as disconcerting a development as a baitman could imagine, the mullet showing trickled to a dead nothing yesterday. At what might be epicenter for mullet migration not a single mullet swam the point at Holgate throughout all of dropping and low tides. That’s unheard of. And alarming. You never want to see a prime forage species go entirely AWOL. The alarm has come and… Continue

Hi Jay,
Last year around this time I was in Barnegate inlet when swarms of these small birds with yellow on there chests where being pecked and knocked out of the sky by segulls while they were flying. Then the segulls would land ont the water and eat them. I diden't know gulls were like that. Jack

SIZEABLE SWALLOWS SHOWING: The skies over Holgate are a-swarm with returning swallows. Over the weekend, I saw a couple huge swirling balls of these type-A personality birds, as they cycloned around. This frenetic behavior serves just one purpose: it allows them to act loopy. I sometimes hear folks saying all that soaring and swirling is for collecting insects. Nah. How many insects can each bird get when there are thousands… Continue

We gotta quit meeting like this. Seems all we’re ever in here doing anymore is talking about storms, honking winds or fierce surf. Ditto, again. Yesterday saw an early-day calmness hit the skids – as winds kicked out of the NE to 20 mph by midday and an unpredicted wallop of rain moved in, dropping an inch in an hour.
On that weather note, I keep pretty close tabs on the sky and if you hearken back to last fall, junk weather began with regularity in… Continue

MAN O MAN O’ WAR: I’ve gotten a few emails about man o’ wars washing up on ocean beaches -- and even getting pushed into the bay. These are very smaller models of the famed clearish blue stinging sea creatures, maybe a few inches across the cap, though sporting much longer tentacles.
Email: “Hi Jay, I found a small Portuguese man o’ war floating in Liberty Tract in front of Mordecai Boat Basin. Have you ever spotted them… Continue

Saturday, September 12, 2009: Waves: Dropping rapidly but still significant. Water clarity: Not great; could clear fairly fast, though this weekend will be roiled. Water temps: Upper 60s. Sun breaking though midday; winds switch to the south.

The ocean temp has dropped quite a bit even in the face of east winds. With the potential for a prolonged stretch of calmer weather for the coming week, it could get very interesting on the angling front.

Friday, September 11, 2009: Waves: Large. Water clarity: Stirred but not horrible.
Well, that was a piss-poor sleeping night here on LBI. Not only was the wind bitch-slapping the shutters all night but lightning bolts spaced themselves perfectly so that no sooner did a dose-off kick in than a back-yarder would detonate followed by that cracking close-by thunder that even scares the crap out of the dead. As of midday, weathery things are improving, which could happen fairly rapidly.… Continue

Well, this is not what I had in mind as I waited for the end of tourism summer (Labor Day) to finally free up the beaches. It’s honkin’ out there; gusts to 30 and goodly gushes of rain. I had mentally scheduled clamming and fishing in Holgate but not only have winds foiled a smooth transition to Holgate time but the tides have been so high that it’s one short low tide and off the beach before water… Continue

Well, it looks like it’s just us now. The Island heaved a sigh of relief as the weight of summer was lifted off it’s back in a single outpouring of outgoing traffic. Obviously, weekends will remain rowdy for months to come but the abiding sense of easier living is obvious this year, as the seasonal population departure seems a tad more distinct than other years -- likely the result of Labor Day being as late as the… Continue

Sunday, September 06, 2009: Waves: rapidly building north wind swell. Clarity: Good but getting roiled royally.

What a difference a yesterday makes. Saturday was just about as nice as the nicety machine can produce. The bay was insane with boat traffic. The Manahawkin Bay party shoal, roughly off the end of 16th Street in Ship Bottom, was the most loaded I’ve ever seen it – using the word “loaded” to cover a few different meaning bases. There had to have been between 75 and 100… Continue

Looks like we can pull off a real nice Saturday. A solid week or brisk northerlies has backed off a bit. It’s calm as all get-out this early a.m. and I see a few boats already heading out for blues or bass or weaks or whatever – anything but fluke. It would be nice if the fall fishing began juts like that. poof it’s Labor Day and big bass and blues begin… Continue

The poke of fall continues. We are stuck in a northeast wind pattern that simply won’t quit any time soon. There will even be some spits thrown in by Thursday. This is not the best thing for Holgate, as high tides will be shutting down the far South End everyday. Those wind-enhanced tides will be pushed along even further by a waxing moon. Very little chance of getting… Continue